Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
ends. Opposite the ranger station, 585 wooden stairs lead to the top (239m). If you man-
age to safely scramble over the rotting planks and loose gravel, you'll be rewarded with
excellent views. It's about an hour return.
PARK
Parque Central
Notable solely for the 50m clock tower designed by French engineer Alexandre Gustave
Eiffel. Imported from France in 1895, the tower deteriorated until 1997 when the Leon Ji-
menez family, of Aurora cigar and Presidente beer fortune, financed its restoration.
Beaches
Tucked behind the hill in the national park and backed by a towering precipice,
Playa
Detras del Morro
is the prettiest beach in the area. There's a stretch of tan sand with some
rocks thrown into the mix. Just past the ranger station where the road dead-ends is a short
dirt path down to the beach.
Playa Juan de Boloños
is an unremarkable narrow strip of sand
1km north of town. Only if you have time and a 4WD,
Playa Popa
is a little strip of sand
16km from town down a rough road - it's difficult to find, so ask directions. It's not espe-
cially beautiful but is little-visited.
Tours
Most of the hotels in town or the tour operator
Sorayo & Santos
( 809-691-6343;
www.ssmontecristitours.com
)
, located next to the Politur office across from the marina down
by Playa Juan de Boloños, organize snorkeling tours, trips to the isolated beach at Isla
Cabra (RD$2000), and boat trips to Los Cayos de los Siete Hermanos (RD$12,000), a col-
lection of seven uninhabited islands inside the national park (usually up to eight people).
Your best bet is to come on weekends in the high season (November to March) or expect
high prices and the possibility of not finding an available boatperson.
The corals here make excellent diving, but then there are equally good corals more eas-
ily accessible elsewhere. Fortune-hunting wreck divers work this coastline, but the many
wooden galleons that sank here have long since rotted away, leaving very little for recre-
ational divers to see.
Sleeping
Hotel Los Jardines
BUNGALOWS
$
